I know this is perhaps the wrong sort of forum to post on but from looking at other post it seems you guys know what your talking about.

I'm looking to buy a new bike with a budget of around £200-£300 (Student Budget) and need some advice on what to purchase.

I'm not looking for full suspension just something that will be comfortable to ring approx 45 min a day 5 days a week. Although i'm not looking
for full suspension, i would like a bike that if i was to ride on rough terrain it wouldn't just crumble beneath me if you know what i mean.

For that money you are NOT going to get quality springs/shock absorbers, so it's a good thing you aren't wasting your money on a el-cheapo full suspension.

Other than that, I can't really tell any specific make/model, but personally I might take a look at some used cycles.. I bought my current one as used (still paid 650 € though) and I've had no problems with it. Straight from the store I had no chances of getting as quality parts. Especially on the suspension the extra money really shows.

Maybe read some bike magazines? They might have a £200-300 roundup just for you!

At the top end of your budget you could get a Marin Pioneer Trail. That should do you in good stead for commuting as well as a bit of off road. I used to ride a Marin Bolinas Ridge, which I still keep around for commuting - I threw that at some pretty gnarly trails and we both survived (just) .

Thanks for the replies.
Trigger that looks like the exact sort of thing I'm after. I made the fatal mistake of buying a cheap bike a couple of years ago. Cheap Bikes = Cheap disc brakes + Downhill = Death Wish

GT Avalanche would suit you very nicely, I've had one before, only cost £200 or so, and it took everything you gave it, very nice to ride, very strong, shame my brother has it now.

Think the GT Avalanche 1.0 2008 got 10/10 in one of the top magazines before, but that was £500, not much difference to the £300 version though.

He's right you know!

In my opinion these are the three best makes of MTB you can get, coming from an mtber and bike mechanic view. The great thing is that their frames are super strong and durbale and the bike will be worth upgrading for many years! My last two mtb's have been GT and they are fantastic and will take most types of abuse!

if mountain then a strong frame and nice knobbly thick tyres are the thing, with some good shocks (I don't know much about mountain biking). If road then you want the lightest frame possible (there are some Trek's you can get for £300 maybe - check eBay). Thinnest tyres possible and no shocks, one with a drop handlebar.

__________________Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ensign Ricky are beaming down to the planet. Guess who's not coming back.

2nd everything said above, I wouldn't buy a full sus for under a grand TBH and a hardtail is all you need, I use mine for everything from dirt jumping to DH and commuting to work.

Garr's recomendations are good choices, staying closer to £300 would be best as you can get a reasonably decent low end bike for that. Stick with V-brakes for that sorta money as a reasonable set of discs will cost you £200+ on there own.

I would also consider tyres more suitable for both tarmac and offroad, standard knoblies and tarmac don't mix well, they cause too much drag and don't run high enough pressures. I run DMR Moto RT's on my main bike, I use 65psi for tarmac and 30 - 40psi for offroad depending on how soft the ground is and the type of riding. They have a fairly level profile tread so roll fast on tarmac and hard dirt but on softer surfaces the tread comes into play, they're not great for mud but you can't get tyres that will be amazing for everything. It's definately worth spending extra on tyres if most of your bike usage is commuting, no point adding extra effort to you journey if you don't need to

Yea disc brakes are useless on cheap bikes. Better off getting Good V's then **** discs. Thanks for all the replies guys made this a lot easier to decide.

You're right there. Much better off with good v's and they won't rub like cheap disc's whic are a real pain to service to to a lack of adjustable parts.

Personally the GT, I think would have the better spec and handling. It would certainly out handle the scott looking at the geomerty. Then there's the fact that GT Frame is HT 6061, which is a fantastic grade of alu. My old zaskar pro had easton 6061 and the bike was that stiff I could beat many of my club members on their road bikes on it!

You may want to have a look at the "ride to work scheme". A few huys at my work are going to buy those GT's this way.
Oh! What size do you need. Smaller is always better. I'm 5'9 and ride a 16in frame and it fits perfecly and looks better IMO, and it's a bit light and stiffer too.

As a standard question, do you already have helmet/lock/gloves and any extra kit? Or does that need to come out of the same budget?

A second hand Avalanche or Hardrock would be ideal, good quality frames and second hand likely to have better kit on them. Reiterating what people said about discs, if they aren't hydraulic then make sure they're avid BB5 or BB7, if they aren't that then don't bother.

__________________Yeah, God could have created the Earth 6000 years ago with less than a blink, and set out all the evidence to the contrary just to confuse us.
Personally I think that blowing up an entire universe on a timescale of billions of years to create the specific people He wanted has far more style